Lazaro Cardenas

Lazaro Cardenas (21 May 1895-19 October 1970) was President of Mexico from 1 December 1934 to 30 November 1940, succeeding Abelardo L. Rodriguez and preceding Manuel Avila Camacho. Cardenas was a candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and he strengthened the educational system, promoted agrarian reform, and nationalized the oil industry as Pemex, while he also enforced secularism and destroyed the legacy of his former ally Plutarco Elias Calles, a conservative president.

Biography
Lazaro Cardenas was born on 21 May 1895 in Jiquilpan, Michoacan, Mexico. He was one of eight children born to a lower-class mestizo family, and he worked as a tax collector, jail guard, and printer's apprentice; although he left school at the age of eleven, he studied history whenever possible. He joined Emiliano Zapata's party during the Mexican Revolution, later serving under Alvaro Obregon and Pancho Villa after Zapata's defeat. From 1928 to 1932, he served as Governor of Michoacan, and he was allied with the conservative President Plutarco Elias Calles. During his term as governor, he oversaw the redistribution of land, the growth of peasant and labor organizations, and the increase in education, with his grassroots style of governing leading to him becoming a popular politician.

President of Mexico
In 1934, he became the presidential candidate for the National Revolutionary Party of Mexico (PNR), leading the liberal faction of the PNR. The conservative Calles made the mistake of believing that he could control Cardenas, but Cardenas went on to exile Calles and his corrupt associates, returning the PNR to its roots in social democracy. Cardenas destroyed the hacienda economy and created a system of ejidos (communal agricultural lands), built modern secular schools to eradicate the influence of the Catholic church (although he did condemn Plutarco Elias Calles' persecution of the Church), and formed workers' cooperatives to oppose the excesses of industrial capitalism. Cardenas reached out to both peasants and workers, and he nationalized the oil industry in 1938, forming Pemex as the national oil company. His destruction of relations with major countries such as the United Kingdom and unpopularity in Mexico led to Vincente Lombardo Toledano forming pro-communist militia forces while Juan Andreu Almazan formed right-wing militias, showing that Cardenas had opposition from both sides. He put down military revolts in Mexico and faced opposition from former revolutionaries, and he decided to create the new Party of the Mexican Revolution in 1938.

Post-presidential career
Cardenas endorsed its candidate Manuel Avila Camacho in the 1940 elections, hoping to put an end to an era of unrest. From 1942 to 1945, Cardenas served as Minister of Defense, and he retired to a modest home in Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan. Cardenas supervised irrigation projects during his later years, and he died in 1970 in Mexico City at the age of 75.